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Thursday, April 14, 2016

H is for Hyrax!

What kind of animal does this look like to you? A rodent, maybe? That would be my first guess, but it would be totally wrong. Would you believe this small animal is related to the elephant and manatee? No, I didn't either, but it's true!

There are about four species of hyrax, one of which is called the Rock Hyrax. They live in Africa and the Middle East. Being omnivorous, they eat almost anything they can find including insects and small lizards. A hyrax will spend most of the day just sunbathing on the rocks with occasional short trips foraging for food. An interesting fact is that the rock hyraxes make at least 21 different types of sounds going to far as to use them in a certain order, using different syllables. According to Wired's Creature Feature, they even use different dialects depending on where they live.